Older and Wiser

I often wonder how to look good at my age.  Here are some of my absolute favourite women who look/looked good at 60 - ish.  I don't know what they have that is so special.  There is something about the way they live their lives, carry themselves, an inner strength and the light in their eyes.  I aspire to this...........ah well

Skin Care

http://skinspamovie.clarins.com/index.php

                                                                                                                                                                 As a qualified Aromatherapist,  I love using Clarins products,  as I know exactly where they come from, they are ethically and organically grown,  plus they smell great!  However, there are times when the cost is prohibitive,  then I make my own products! 

Here is my recipe for a lovely night oil (and no, it does not make your skin greasy!) which I use when I cannot get Clarins oils:

Base oils: using jojoba, grapeseed, peach kernal and wheatgerm (can be obtained as one blend)
or a mixture of two or three of the above.

Add:

Approximately for every 15 ml of base oil: (One Tablespoon)
Two drops of Rose Otto or Rose Absolute
Three drops of Chamomile (Roman if poss)
Two drops Jasmine
One drop Patchouli.

If you do not like Patchouli, add three drops of Rose instead.

Aromatherapy oils keep better in brown or blue bottles, as light changes the constituents of the oils.
I always use Tisserand oils where possible,  but use any that are organically and ethically grown.

Happy Thursday!!

a Poem for St Valentine's Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine

How Do I Love Thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being an ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the Breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Elizabeth Barret Browning

The Great Way has no gate

The Great Way has no gate

by Wu Men (Hui-k'ai) (1183 - 1260) Timeline English version byEiichi Shimomisei Original LanguageChinese

The Great Way has no gate,
A thousand roads enter it.
When one passes through this gateless gate,
He freely walks between heaven and earth

Maya Angelou

'A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretence and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself'

Surviving hardship

Flower in the crannied wall By Alfred Tennyson (1809 - 1892)   Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies; -- Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower -- but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.

Have you noticed,  that no matter what hardship mother nature is faced with,  she survives!!  Build a wall, she will give you a flower.  We may destroy the world, but it will survive, who are we to think otherwise?  Do we know more than God?

The field

''Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing,  there is a field, I will meet you there''

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Painting: Vincent van Gogh

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with the golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams...

William Butler Yeats

(thank you to Mizzie Morawez for picture)